What is…
Arabah
Hebrew: עֲרָבָה —transliteration: arabah —meaning: plain (in the sense of sterility); a desert
also known as: Aravah, Arava
Introduction
This name was especially associated with the generally sterile and hollow depression through which the Jordan flows from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea.
The Edomites (Edom/Idumea) lived here.
The Arabs later called it el-Ghor or Al-Ghor. But the Ghor is sometimes spoken of as extending 10 miles south of the Dead Sea, and from there to the Gulf of Akabah on the Red Sea it is called the Wadi el-Araba (Wady el-Arabah).
The name Arabah appears 27 times in the New American Standard Bible (NASB), but in only one verse of the King James Bible (KJV) (Joshua 18:18). Except for Joshua 18:18 and Amos 6:14, the KJV always translates “arabah” as “plain.” In Amos 6:14, the KJV translates it as “wilderness.”